A knee injury sidelined Hank Holm for last year’s state football quarterfinal game.

Three months later, a different knee injury kept Holm off the court just two weeks before postseason basketball.

It wasn’t until his second significant impairment that it was discovered the then Lena-Winslow junior suffered both an ACL tear in the fall, and a torn meniscus in the winter.

“I never got an MRI after the Hales (Franciscan) game (in the second round of the playoffs),” Holm said. “I played basketball on it and then tore my meniscus in February.

“I had surgery in March.”

Recovery and rehabbing wasn’t easy.

“You have your good days and bad days,” said Holm, who dons a brace on his left leg in practice and in games. “The recovery part, you just have to stay strong in order to get back to the goal of playing again. Every time I went back and rehabbed, all I could think about was getting back on the field with my teammates.”

That’s what bothered Holm the most, missing time on the field for football and on the court for basketball.

Holm was relegated to street clothes as the Panthers lost to Stockton in the state quarterfinal, 48-14. Then Stockton beat Le-Win in the regional quarterfinals in basketball as Holm could only watch from the sideline.

The linebacker was then forced to miss the first six weeks of his senior football season before finally returning to the field against Galena in Week 7.

“But it’s nowhere near the pain of having to stay on the sideline and watch your teammates play. So right now, I kind of play with a chip on my shoulder because I didn’t get to play those first six weeks. I just give it everything that I’ve got.”

And Holm offers a lot to the Panthers’ defense.

Le-Win gave up an average of 19.8 points per game through Week 6, including 26 points against Cerro Gordo (11-0) and West Carroll (3-6), 34 against Eastland-Pearl City (10-1) and 33 against Forreston (7-3).

Since Holm’s return, the Panthers have allowed an average of 17.8 points. Le-Win surrendered just 10 to Forreston in their rematch in the first round of the playoffs, then held a high-powered Aquin offense to just 12 through nearly four quarters. The Bulldogs, trailing 48-12 prior, scored with 36 seconds left in the game.

“He improves us a ton on defense,” Le-Win quarterback Ben Moest said. “He’s always been a smart player. He knows his football and he brings another physicality to our defense.”

His skill at the position isn’t lost on opposing coaches.

“He’s a quality linebacker,” Stockton coach Chris Thornton said. “He has a lot of those great leadership traits out there. You can tell that he’s directing some traffic out there and getting calls in.

“And the biggest aspect that makes him difficult is he reads fast and gets to the football extremely fast. He can make a lot of plays.”

“It definitely helps to have Hank Holm back at linebacker,” running back Tyler Oakley said.

And the senior linebacker is definitely excited about playing in this year’s quarterfinal, which happens to be a rematch of last season’s matchup against Stockton.

“This game means a lot to me because last year I was just watching,” Holm said.